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- To add a new forum, toggle the Edit mode button on in the top-right of your page, then click the Add an activity or resource drop-down menu where you want the forum to go and choose Forum or Forum (Advanced). The Advanced Forum provides additional features such as anonymous posting (optional - see 'Caution' below), the ability for tutors to mark posts as substantive, and a 1 page report that shows a list of students alongside how many posts, replies and substantive posts they have made. Select Forum (Advanced) for the sake of this exercise.
- Give the forum a name that will be meaningful to your students e.g. 'Module Q&A'
- Indicate in the Description what the forum is for; how often you or your colleagues will look at it; and how you expect your students to use it. For social forums like Student Café, you might want to emphasise that you may never look at it!
- Keep the forum type as: Standard forum for general use.
- In Post Options you can Allow anonymous posting if you would like to allow students to have the option of posting anonymously.
- Under Subscription, you can set Subscription Mode to:
- Forced Subscription if you want to enforce subscription.
- *Auto Subscription if you want everyone initially subscribed (they can unsubscribe later). *Recommended!
- Optional Subscription if you want everyone initially unsubscribed (they can subscribe later).
- Subscription Disabled if you want no email messages sent out.
- You can also set a forum to use groups. Under Common module settings in Group Mode choose your grouping from the following:
- Separate groups will only enable students in the same group to see each other's posts. Posts will be hidden from students that are not in the group.
- Visible groups allow everyone to see each group's posts, but only those in the group can post and reply within their own group/s.
- Click the Save and return to course button.
- It is essential to add a welcome message to any new forum explaining its purpose and how often students can expect a response from their tutors. This may only be once a week, but it is important this is stated up front.
- Discussions and posts can be manually locked and privately replied to. Please see the Using Forum Moodle Docs page for more guidance.
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- To add a new forum, toggle the Edit mode button on in the top-right of your page, then click the Add an activity or resource drop-down menu where you want the forum to go and choose Forum (Advanced). Make sure you select the Advanced Forum, as the standard Forum does not allow for anonymous posting.
- On the settings page, under Post Options, click the checkbox next to Under Subscription, change Subscription mode to Subscription disabled. This is vital as there is a known issue with anonymity in Advanced forums whereby emails sent out to forum subscribers allow the recipients to discern the identity of 'anonymous' posters. This was last tested on the 27th July 2023 and if a student posts a new discussion topic anonymously in an advanced forum, their identity will not be revealed in a subscription email but if they reply to a post, it will be
- Click the Save and return to course button.
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Q. Why are students and staff not receiving my forum posts as email alerts?
A. There could be a number of reasons email alerts are not being sent:
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